This invention pertains in general to telescoping conduits. More particularly, the present invention deals with an adjustable length conduit for a home appliance.
The invention is especially suited for telescoping wands used for vacuum cleaners. It should, however, be appreciated by those of average skill in the art that the invention could also be used in various other environments where telescoping conduits are employed.
In canister-type vacuum cleaners, a rigid, hollow wand is utilized between a suction hose and a suction-cleaning tool. The wand serves the dual purpose of providing a handle for manipulating the tool and a conduit for conveying air and dust from the tool to the hose. The tool may be a floor nozzle or it may be an above-the-floor cleaning brush, crevice tool, or the like. It is advantageous to be able to adjust the length of a wand depending on the type of cleaning task involved. For example, when cleaning drapery materials it is advantageous to have a long wand so as to be able to reach the upper end of the drapery fabric. In other environments, such as vacuuming a couch, a short length of wand is all that is required. Such telescoping wands have also proven advantageous for upright vacuum cleaners when they are used to do above-the-floor cleaning and even for portable, hand-held vacuum cleaners under certain circumstances.
Various types of telescoping wand assemblies are known for vacuum cleaners. Several of these can be telescopically adjusted and latched at one of a number of preset positions. Such wands are disadvantageous from the standpoint that only a limited number of preset lengths of wand are available. Other known types of telescoping wand assemblies enable an infinite adjustment of the wand by providing a means for locking which enables two wand sections to be locked together at any point along their length. However, all of the known wand assemblies of this nature involve the use of several additional parts, making such wand assemblies disadvantageous from the standpoint of complexity and cost due to the extra parts required. Various types of telescoping tubular conduits are also known for the delivery of fluids in various fields such as, e.g. sprinkler systems. However, these conduits also involve the use of numerous additional parts and are therefore disadvantageous.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved telescoping assembly which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others, while providing better and more advantageous overall results.